November 01, 2004

All Saints Day- The Great Cloud of Witnesses

The Christ of Pahoa town... My "spoof" if you will of the incredible statues that tower over cities in South America. This one stands wreathed in leis on a grassy knoll below the Church of the Scared Heart in Pahoa... I can think of no other place here in Hawaii that needs the hand of God on it more, not only because of its drug infested and poverty striken past, it still has those things but this town of contrasts is at the forefront of the cataclysimic change that is overwelming this island and here is one place where there have already been clashes between the haves and the have nots, the "Townies" ie the mainland money running up the prices and the last vestages of Hippiedom that live under the blue tarps on the lava and under the trees....

Today is All Saints Day one of the few Catholic Holidays that this Baptist bred, Pentecostal Fire Baptized nonconformist observes. I think it behooves us of all faiths to think of those that have gone before us in spiritual things as well as the temperal things, and remember the scarifices and the triumphs...

I love this passage from Hebrews. Its not an easy read but it says ignore the past at your peril. The chapter prior is a recounting of the heros of the Jewish faith, and should I have put that on the blog, it would be so long a read, you will miss voting tomorrow and I cant have that!

Hbr 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Hbr 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hbr 12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hbr 12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
Hbr 12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;
Hbr 12:6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."
Hbr 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom {his} father does not discipline?
Hbr 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Hbr 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
Hbr 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He {disciplines us} for {our} good, so that we may share His holiness.
Hbr 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Hbr 12:12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,
Hbr 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that {the limb} which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
Hbr 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
Hbr 12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
Hbr 12:16 that {there be} no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a {single} meal.
Hbr 12:17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.
Hbr 12:18 For you have not come to {a mountain} that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,
Hbr 12:19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which {sound was such that} those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.
Hbr 12:20 For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED."
Hbr 12:21 And so terrible was the sight, {that} Moses said, "I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling."
Hbr 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
Hbr 12:23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of {the} righteous made perfect,
Hbr 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than {the blood} of Abel.
Hbr 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned {them} on earth, much less {will} we {escape} who turn away from Him who {warns} from heaven.
Hbr 12:26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN."
Hbr 12:27 This {expression,} "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Hbr 12:28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;
Hbr 12:29 for our God is a consuming fire.

I find the last verse chilling...

I would offer up a few of the heros of my faith, some past some present. I have found the stories of these men and women inspiring..

Heros past

Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, was the forth son of the Count Amery de Monfort and came to England from his native France after a series of decisive victories in the Crusades. He appealed to his cousin the Earl of Chester to reture the Earldom of Leicester to his branch of the family from whom it was previously taken by King John. He was married to King Henry III sister, Eleanor, and was Governor of English land in Gascony for four years. He was to become the driving force behind the barons in the Second Barons' War.

In October 1258 the King accepted the Provisions of Oxford, but he had no intention of living by them. The barons that had written them had differing ideas of how far they should be taken. Simon de Montfort took them to their most extreme. He believed that the Council of Fifteen, set up by the Provisions of Oxford, could if necessary rule against the King's wishes. Edward, heir to the throne, believed the council should be a group of advisers and nothing more than that.

Civil War was inevitable. In May 1264 de Montfort won the Battle of Lewes and captured the king and his heir. Edward escaped and de Montfort fought and died at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. In 1267 the Provisions of Oxford and Westminster were revoked and the King could once again choose his own councillors.

From" This Septered Isle, Little known events of Englands History that shaped our lives..." BBC

Shaped our lived indeed, these "Oxford Provisions" are the Bill of Rights to the Magna Carta. Think of our Constitution without the Bill of Rights? The Earl Simon, a devout Believer, was one of the first noblemen to publically champion the rights of the lower born, and felt that all being created in Gods image should have the same rights and priviledges... a huge leap forward in civil rights thinking that wasnt really implemented in full until the 20th Century. He was revolutionary and paid the ultimate price for that thinking by losing his life the lives of his sons and the eventual total annaliation of his line. His story was politically cleansed and it was until the great Winston Churchill wrote of him in his histories that we get a full account of his actions. Our Founding Fathers patterned both the Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights with this document in mind.

Anne Marbury Hutchenson
Anne began her involvment with religion quite innocently, using her intelligence to interpret the only book available to her - the Bible. She had followed her beloved minister, Reverend John Cotton, whose removal to New England a year earlier had been "a great trouble to me...I could not be at rest but I must come hither."

The religious climate in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was oppresive. As the colony took hold, ministers emphasized everyone's pious duty to pray, fast and discipline oneself. Noting that the male members of Boston's church met regularly after sermons to discuss the Bible, she started to hold similar meetings for women in her own home. At first the women discussed the previous Sunday's sermons, but before long Anne began telling them of her own beliefs which differed from those of the Boston ministers. She attracted hundreds of women - aided by her reputation as a skilled midwife - and men, too, soon joined her discussion group.

Brilliant, articulate and learned in the Bible and theology, she denied that conformity with the religious laws were a sign of godliness and inisted that true godliness came from inner experience of the Holy Spirit.

you can read the rest of this biography here

This lady was one of the first spiritual leaders to teach The Grace of God as the way to God , Versus an oppressive series of laws and duties, and ritual. The mother of 17 children, her decendents went on the become statesmen and diplomats as well as theologians. Both President Bush and the Current Queen of England share in her blood line, President Bush being a direct descendent of Anne Hutchenson.

Modern Heros

One of them is Elisabeth Elliot Gren, I knew of her even before I became a Christian becasue of the incredible thing that she did after her first husband was murdered by the people that he had been trying to reach out to with the Gospel. She and the widow of another one of the murdered men and her 2 year old daughter went and lived with the people that killed her beloved husband... I dont think I could do that. She is a shining example of paitence perseverence and prayerfulness.

I have often featured her writings in my blog because I find her a voice of sanity in an ever increasingly insane world... She is known for many things including some very controversial views on dating... Did you know that dating as we do it in the West is not scriptural?... food for thought, I gave up dating and was found by Woody with some interesting results. I think her methods work. My only wish is that those that knew of the real issues that he has would have shared them with me so that we could have worked on solutions but that is a story for another day...

I also admire the family of Dr. Billy Graham... and not just the well known people, but the whole tribe. Think about the enormous pressure to be more than you are, because of public scrutiny. I know from personal friends that know them that this is not the case and that what you see is what you get with them and I admire that. I want to be that way. Transparent inside and out, and that is hard for me as I am a private person at the core.

Think about your heros and what values that they represent and be thankful that we have good role models and guides. That great Cloud of Witnesses stands with us in the Covenant of Grace, now and forever.